A government website mistakenly suggested the absence of criminal insider trading charges against Steven A. Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors LP might be due to national security concerns, officials said Thursday.

The Justice Department’s website, in a list of Freedom of Information Act requests that were resolved this past July, noted that one request for documents related to the government’s investigation into Mr. Cohen had been referred to the Department’s National Security Division. The log doesn’t identify who makes the requests. Here’s the entry:

FOIA-2013-03977
OIP
7/31/13
Records concerning the Department of Justice investigation into Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors and the decision not to bring criminal charges against him that aren’t covered by Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Determined that the National Security Division, and the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, DOJ, were the most appropriate entities for handling and referred request and requester to those components for processing Read More »

Related News:

Here’s one thing that most likely won’t come up during the criminal trial of SAC portfolio manager Michael Steinberg: His firm’s recent decision to plead guilty to insider trading.

SAC has made headlines this month by agreeing to plead guilty to the charges, accept responsibility for insider trading by six of its employees over the past 10 years, and pay a total of $1.8 billion in civil and criminal penalties. Read More »

SAC, Battles Won and Lost: The U.S. and SAC can each plausibly declare victory in the $1.2 billion criminal settlement—even if neither side got everything it wanted. WSJ

Big Banks to Continue with SAC: Some pillars on Wall Street are standing by SAC Capital Advisors LP.WSJ

Bitcoin Firm Seeks Protection: A three-month-old company with ties to one of the biggest promoters of the virtual currency bitcoin has filed for bankruptcy protection with less than $50,000 in assets. WSJRead More »

Federal prosecutors announced what they called a historic settlement of a criminal insider-trading indictment with hedge-fund group SAC Capital Advisors LP.

Under the proposed deal released Monday, SAC, run by star manager Steven A. Cohen, would pay nearly $1.2 billion in criminal penalties to federal prosecutors, in addition to $616 million that it paid under an earlier settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Patent war erupts: The long-running patent war among the technology industry’s heavyweights just grew more controversial. Lawsuits, brought by the Rockstar Consortium, largely position companies that don’t sell smartphones built around Google’s Android operating system against those that do. WSJ

Record Insider Pact Expected: Hedge-fund group SAC Capital Advisors LP and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are expected to announce a record insider-trading settlement Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. A news conference has been scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday. WSJ

Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, at a news conference about the federal indictment against SAC Capital on Thursday.

The criminal charges against SAC Capital Advisors LP, unveiled Thursday, were accompanied by a civil forfeiture complaint, alleging that the firm dumped the profits of an insider-trading scheme into investment funds, where they mixed with clean money and were laundered through trades based on more inside information.

Former prosecutors said that the money-laundering theory in the case breaks no new ground — the crime, in the simplest terms, is characterized by the movement of illicit profits, either with the intent to conceal or to reinvest in criminal activities.

Yet the breadth of the complaint is unusual, they say.

Rather than naming a specific amount of money or piece of property, as is typical in civil forfeiture cases, the complaint seeks “any and all” assets of SAC. That doesn’t mean the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. . . . . Read More »

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement action against the SAC Capital Advisors LP chief executive alleges he ignored “red flags” that should have alerted him to insider trading “under his watch.”

The agency is focused on trading by two then-SAC portfolio managers: Mathew Martoma and Michael Steinberg.

Sounds bad. How many years in prison could he face?

None. The SEC has only civil enforcement authority. The agency is seeking to bar Mr. Cohen from overseeing investor funds.

About Law Blog

The Law Blog covers the legal arena’s hot cases, emerging trends and big personalities. It’s brought to you by lead writer Jacob Gershman with contributions from across The Wall Street Journal’s staff. Jacob comes here after more than half a decade covering the bare-knuckle politics of New York State. His inside-the-room reporting left him steeped in legal and regulatory issues that continue to grab headlines.

Must Reads

Plaintiffs' lawyers dodged a bullet last year when the U.S. Supreme Court spared a quarter-century-old precedent that had served as the legal linchpin of the modern investor class-action case. Despite that win, a new report suggests that securities class actions have lost some of their firepower.

In a week in which images of Prophet Muhammad were connected to acts of terror and defiant expressions of freedom, a sculpture of the prophet of Islam inside the U.S. Supreme Court has drawn little notice.

The salacious allegations against Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz that surfaced in a federal lawsuit involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have generated international attention. Drawing less coverage is the lawsuit itself -- a case with the potential to expand the rights of crime victims during federal investigations.